After Stanley Prince returned home after 26 years in prison, he says he struggled to maintain employment as he dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It was hard for me to keep a job, so I finally decided to save my money up and start my own business,” he said.
In 2018, a year after his release from prison, Prince launched a lawn care business. Then last year, after contracting Covid-19 in 2021 and ending up in the hospital, Prince said his business was suffering. But thanks to his participation in a new Harris-Stowe State University entrepreneurship program Prince says his one-man operation is back on track.
Prince is one of seven graduates of Harris-Stowe’s new Minority Entrepreneurship Collaboration Center for Advancement (MECCA) Entrepreneurship Accelerator, an incubator program for entrepreneurs who have been justice-involved. Harris-Stowe wrapped up the first cohort of the program last week with a graduation ceremony for the seven participants.
Stacy Gee Hollins, dean of Harris-Stowe’s Anheuser-Busch School of Business, said the MECCA Entrepreneurship Accelerator was established after she was introduced to the Community Action Agency of St. Louis County (CAASTLC), a nonprofit that offers services for offenders. CAASTLC sourced the participants for the program’s pilot cohort, Hollins said. Harris-Stowe launched the program using grant funds it has received from PNC Bank to boost Black entrepreneurship.
Hollins said Harris-Stowe’s status as a historically Black university and its focus on serving underrepresented groups made it a natural fit for its MECCA Entrepreneurship Accelerator and to work with justice-involved individuals.
“It was something (where) they didn’t feel uncomfortable walking into a new space because I feel like Harris-Stowe provides that safe space for a lot of Black and Brown, or underserved, individuals,” she said.
Participants in the eight-week accelerator program included those with operating businesses as well as individuals with plans to launch a business idea. Devon Moody-Graham of CEOMom Empire LLC led the programming. Through the accelerator, Prince said he learned about how to better invest in his business and market himself and his company. He said being connected with other business owners also helped expand his network and client base. He now has 22 contracts, up from four when he began the accelerator program.
“Everything was so genuine,” Prince said. “This wasn’t a program set up just to show up and make it look good and make the facilitators look good. It was a program set up to help people help themselves look good and make it out here in the business world.”
With the first cohort wrapped up, Hollins said Harris-Stowe plans to continue working with the graduates. It plans to make sure businesses launched out of the program are properly licensed and is exploring partnerships to connect graduates with continued mentorship. Harris-Stowe plans to operate additional cohorts of its new accelerator program this summer and fall, Hollins said.
